Russian schoolchildren hold anti-Estonia protest
Sat Feb 9, 12:35 PM ET
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian schoolchildren held a history class about World War II on Saturday outside the Estonian embassy in Moscow in a protest over the removal of a Soviet war monument from central Tallinn.
The class, which was given by a Russian war veteran, was held outdoors in a street near the embassy amid near-freezing temperatures. Around 20 children dressed in winter coats and hats attended, an AFP photographer saw.
The protest was organised by the Mishki (Teddy Bears), a children's group affiliated with the Kremlin-backed youth organisation Nashi, which has carried out numerous protests against Estonia.
The bitter dispute over the Bronze Soldier war monument last year plunged relations between Estonia and Russia to their lowest level since 1991, when the Baltic country regained independence as the Soviet Union fell apart.
Estonian authorities moved the monument from a square in central Tallinn where it had stood for 60 years to a cemetery, sparking riots in the Estonian capital in which one person died.
Russians, including the substantial minority that lives in Estonia, see the statue as a memorial to the millions of Soviet soldiers who died in the war.
But many Estonians see it as a reminder of five decades of Soviet occupation, which began at the end of the war and lasted until 1991.
Russian schoolchildren hold anti-Estonia protest - Yahoo! News